Infants Cared for in Another Home Become HeavierToddlers

THURSDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News) -- When infants attend day care in someone else's home,they're more likely to be heavier than average by the time they're toddlers, new research suggests.

Harvard researchers report in the August issue of Pediatrics that babies aged 6 months and youngerwho were cared for in someone else's home, rather than in their own home or at a day-care center,were more likely to weigh more in relation to their height at the ages affordable child care of 1 and3.

"An infant who was in child care in someone else's home in the first six months of life was 5 or sopercentage points higher [on growth charts] at 1 or 3 years old than an infant who started at thesame point but was cared for at home by another provider or at a center," said study author SaraBenjamin, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of population medicine at HarvardMedical School in Boston.

Benjamin said it's not clear why this type of care may lead to heavier children. She said it could be acharacteristic of the families that choose this type of care, or it could have something to do with thisless formal day-care setting.

Between 9 percent and 12 percent of U.S. children under the age of 2 are overweight, according tobackground information in the study. Rapid weight gain during the first two years of life has beenlinked to becoming overweight later in childhood. Rapid weight gain in infancy has even beenassociated with higher blood pressure and wheezing in childhood and in adulthood.

In a random sample of 1,138 women, who began participating in the study while they werepregnant, 649 (57 percent) placed their infants in some sort of day care before they were 6 monthsold. Half of the babies included in the study were female, and two-thirds were white. About 15percent were black and around 5 percent were Hispanic. For most families, the average householdincome was more than $70,000 annually.

For babies who went to day-care centers, the average number of hours spent in day care was 11.3per week, care at home by someone other than a parent averaged 9.6 hours a week, and care insomeone else's home (which could include a family member, friend, neighbor, or licensed careprovider) averaged 11.7 hours a week.

The researchers found that the more time a child spent in day care, the heavier the child was.Benjamin said there didn't appear to be a critical cut-off period, but that the relationship was linear,with weight rising as the number of hours spent in day care increased.

But when they further analyzed the data, they discovered that this relationship was only significantwhen care was provided in someone else's home, and that it wasn't an issue when care was providedin the child's home or at a day-care center.

The growth charts used in the study were from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,which pediatricians commonly use to assess a child's height and weight, and which take into account

the child's age. Benjamin explained that if two infants had started in the 50th percentile of weightfor their height and age, that the one who was cared for at home or in a day-care center would likelystay in the 50th percentile, while the one cared for in someone else's home would probably jump tothe 55th percentile in weight.